BRITONS enjoyed a weekend blast of summer – and the country is set to continue basking in the heat for a few days.

The hottest recorded temperature was 76F (24.5C) in St James’s Park in London while many parts of the country, including Sheffield, Manchester, Cambridge and most of the Midlands, saw thermometers rise to the 70s.

It meant Britain was warmer than Tenerife, Barcelona, Nice and Faro in Portugal, where temperatures hovered only in the 60s.

The Met Office said temperatures soared to more than 8F above the May average.

Forecaster Helen Roberts added: “It has been the hottest day of the year so far.”

Temperatures today, she said, would be “close to, or above” those at the weekend.

Never mind Spain – when the weather is like this, why would you want to go anywhere else?

Julie Smith

Showers are expected later in the week.

An estimated 50,000 people flocked to Bournemouth on the South coast, where ice-cream sellers struggled to meet demand.

Julie Smith was with her husband Mark and children Paul, seven, and Alice, five, on the resort’s beach.

Julie, 37, said: “Never mind Spain – when the weather is like this, why would you want to go anywhere else?”

At the Chelsea Flower Show the weather was so warm, gardeners put up gazebos to stop their prized plants from wilting.

The rising mercury had the bookies excited, too: They slashed the odds of this being the hottest May on record to 5-1, down from 8-1.

• Police revealed two men died in separate incidents in North Wales on Saturday.